Jim Woodring

When The Stranger gave cartoonist Jim Woodring a Genius Award for literature last year, several poets threw tantrums: How can a man whose books often don't contain a single word, they whined, win a literature award? Here's how: Every one of Woodring's comics is an epic poem, a psychedelic novel, and a deeply personal memoir. If you can't identify with his protagonist, the innocent-but-fickle Frank, there's something wrong with you. And if we didn't give him a Genius Award last year, we would have given it to him this year—Congress of the Animals is his best book yet. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, 7 pm, free)